The leaves are a bit darker and browner than they appear in the photo. Has what I would call a typical dancong flavor....think mi lan. A touch of roast and florals transitioning into some ripe fruit. Its best characteristic is a nice lingering finish. An enjoyable tea....but not blowing me away.

The postman arrived at 8:30 am with a box full of wuyi samples from EoT. First up, an affordable half-handmade 2010 Zhu Lian Dan Cong. A very enjoyable tea which may benefit from more intense brewing. I look forward to experimenting.

2 boxes of Tie Guan Yin my mum received as a gift. Heavily roasted. Both smells like sour plums from the dry leaves and tastes like charcoal on the first brew. Subsequent brews did not offer up anything special as well

I've clearly made progress in my tea education since lat year because this time around I can detect noticeable differences among the EoT samples. I'm trying to fall in love with the half-handmade teas but so far I haven't succeeded.

2011 Gong Xiang Tribute Fragrance Dan Cong from Tea Habitat: due to current respiratory issues, a proper tasting didn't seem in order, so I didn't actually weigh out the leaves. Wet, they fill my Chao Zhou pot about this much, not packed at all

The tea is amazing--last night, the first 5 or 6 infusions were floral and delicate. This morning, I'm another 3 or 4 infusions in, and the tea is spicy and bold with floral receding a bit behind the spiciness. Still nothing like bitter. It's quite an amazing tea. Although it's brewed quite hot, and my Mojave yunomi is not sufficiently protective of my fingers for a full cup of tea brewed at 205, it does fine with these little infusions, and is remarkably harmonious with the Chao Zhou pot and my Petr Novak yuzamashi.